Shakespeare and the Early Modern Self 145
heads / [Do grow] beneath their shoulders” (I.iii.143–145). At the
end of Othello’s grandiloquent recitation, Desdemona expresses the
wish that “heaven had made her such a man” (I.iii.163).
For Othello there is one central truth in life. It is the epic truth of
Othello, the victor who has come through struggles, who is the safe-
guard of the city of Venice and the lover and husband of the beau-
tiful Desdemona. He has no desire to inquire into the validity of
his terms for self- rendering. The Othello we meet at the beginning of
the play clearly believes that there is one truth (his) and a set of words
that perfectly expresses that truth (his as well). He has no aware-
ness of (or no use for) ambiguity, complexity, or irony. Not for him
what Nietz sche calls a “perspectival” seeing, in which there is no
central truth about a person or event, only multiple interpretations.
Othello is immune to the idea that every human occurrence is
charged and changed by virtue of being seen from a diff erent angle.
He is incapable of entertaining the idea that there is no disinterested,
determining vantage. The notion that perspectives compete with
each other and that one perspective ascends to something called
truth because of the authority of the perceiver, or the force of insti-
tutional power that underwrites him, is not available to Othello.
Othello is a truth- teller. When he is accused of bewitching Des-
demona, Othello confronts the elders of Venice with his reputation
and his faith in his power to tell absolute truth. “My parts, my title,
and my perfect soul / Shall manifest me rightly” (I.ii.31–32). But the
world is changing, and truth is no longer so simple a matter.
Othello, the heroic literalist, almost seems to call up the demon
Iago from the depths. For Iago is Othello’s dark inverse. “I am not
what I am,” says Iago. In what tone of voice does he speak these
words? Is it won der? Is he shocked and rather delighted at the un-
resolvable complexity of feelings and thoughts that he sees when he
examines his inner life? Perhaps he speaks in horror. He cannot fi nd
his fundamental self, so he does not know what he will say or do